Many years ago, my brother and I saw a play called Hadrian the Seventh, which was based on a book by the same name. The gist of the story is that two members of the Roman Catholic church visiting a pathetic Englishman who failed at becoming a priest; they make him a priest and take him back to the Vatican where he is elected Pope. Instead of having control over this rather pathetic fellow, he goes on to have his way with the Roman Catholic church. So any time I read a book about the Vatican I always think of Hadrian the Seventh.

Robert Harris has taken another tact, which has been written about before but Harris does such an excellent job that you really won’t mind. Using current day politics of growing place the third world, race and ethics Harris takes us through the election of a Pope. As we all know the Roman Catholic church is going faster in the third world than it is in the “old world”, so as the Vatican prepares to elect it’s newest Pope there are a lot of unknowns. It appears that the former Pope did somethings that no one was aware of until after his death.

A good read, but not something I see happening.